検索キーワード： ナレーター "B J Harrison" すべてのカテゴリー

"I will not suffer thee, ungrateful girl, to rule my people according to thine own capricious will!" The king of Denmark is extremely frustrated with his daughter. Not only does she reject every suitor who asks for her hand - she does it so rudely that her reputation has become horrible in the neighboring countries. When the King orders her to marry one of her cousins, she does so only begrudgingly, and instantly starts planning her father's murder with her new husband.

David Balfour is a young Scottish man whose parents have recently died. The seventeen-year-old orphan decides that the time has come for him to seek his fortune. Right before Balfour departs for Edinburgh, he meets with his guardian Mr Campbell. Campbell tells the young boy that he has a wealthy uncle living in Cramond.

Can you imagine traveling back to the past? What would you find there? Would you like it? Would you find that everything you do has some consequences in the future? Do you want to join the man in our story? Because he is about to "trap" himself in a backwards time warp. If you are not brave enough to come along, but you still want to find out what happened next, just grab "The Man Who Lived Backwards" by Charles F. Hall. B. J. Harrison started his Classic Tales Podcast back in 2007, wanting to breathe new life into classic stories.

"When the World Was Young" introduces us to a thief named Dave Slotter, who intends to steal from James Ward - a famous and wealthy businessman. However, while Slotter walks through Ward’s property, he encounters a wild barbarian and is forced to fight for his life. Will Slotter escape from the wild man who wants to kill him? Who is the barbarian and what is he doing on Ward’s lands? Will the thief succeed in his plan? "Moon-Face" introduces us to John Claverhouse, a man who is unreasonably despised.

"The Room in the Dragon Volant" is a mysterious story about a premature burial, a theme favoured by Poe some years previously. When a chivalric young man tries to save an innocent countess from the clutches of a greedy count, little does he suspect that the whole situation could be a trap. With plenty of Gothic elements and some remarkable episodes of horror, "The Room in the Dragon Volant" is a haunting mystery story that will keep readers at the edge of their seat. B. J.

The Porte Montmartre is under citizen Bibot’s command and he is determined not to let anybody escape. When he finds out that Scarlet Pimpernel is planning his next rescue mission, he is ready to do whatever it takes to stop the commander of "The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel". Will he manage to do so or will Pimpernel outwit him? Will the Duc and Duchesse de Montreux be saved by Pimpernel or will this mission fail? Find out the answers in the second of eleven short stories, combined in "The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" from 1919.

Winter Wedderburn is an amateur collector of orchids, spending his days peacefully with his housekeeper. One day he invites more adventure into his life and buys an unknown species of orchids brought from the Andaman Islands. Little does he know that purchasing this unusual plant will bring him more adventure than he could ever have dreamt of. "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid" is a short horror story by H.G. Wells from the late 19th century, providing the reader with a most unusual enemy.

The "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" is a secret society made up of twenty English aristocrats. The commander is the so-called "Scarlet Pimpernel" but almost nobody knows his real identity. The society aims to defy the French revolutionaries. The main goal is to rescue innocents from the deadly guillotine.

"The Tragedy of Coriolanus" falls into the category of Shakespeares' political tragedies. It tells of the story of the legendary Roman hero Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Coriolanus' military success helps him get forward in Rome's political life, and he soon starts dreaming of a leadership position. Unfortunately, too much power inevitably leads to corruption, and Coriolanus’ fate is no exception.

Bryan Dalyrimple returns to his hometown as a war hero after World War I. But after the ticker tape parades and back-slapping handshakes, he finds himself stuck in a dead-end job with little room for advancement, and frustration begins to mount. He decides to turn to the only option left for him—crime. Originally published in the 1920 short story collection Flappers and Philosophers, Fitzgerald shines a light on the sentiment toward the returning doughboys of World War I, and the dwindling opportunities awaiting them upon their return.

A Christmas ball sets the plans in motion for the wealthy Julian Mastakovich, for an immensely wealthy business man has just announced that his daughter has a dowry of 300,000 rubles. First published in 1848, and adapted into a motion picture in 2000, Dostoyevsky shines a light on the business end of well-moneyed marriage. It begins when an 11-year-old girl gets an extravagant doll at a Christmas ball.

A country doctor visits the spacious house of a Baron. But when he arrives, he draws up in shock. Everything inside and outside of the house, down to the clothing of the inhabitants, is all the same color—white. Why is everything about the house eerily bloodless? Mary Fortune was one of the earliest female writers of crime fiction, and likely the first to write from the point of view of the detective. She enjoyed a prolific career in Australia, where she also wrote under the pseudonyms Waif Wanderer and W.W.

Everett’s brother rocked the world with his incredible musical talent. And Everett is…fine. But he’s okay with that. He’s a member of “a certain lovable class of men who never accomplish anything in particular”. But when traveling in the West, Everett meets a remarkable woman who is dying, and discovers that she has a history her brother, he gives her the greatest gift of all during her final days—the gift of understanding.

“Have you seen the Yellow Sign?” mumbles a cadaverous hearse driver with a soft, squishy head. He’s been skulking about Scott’s painting studio, where he and Tessie have been developing a tangled relationship between artist and model. But as this ever-present watchman resembling a coffin worm begins to distract Scott, his portrait of Tessie takes on a deathlike pallor. How can they forever rid themselves of this hearse stalker? And what precisely does he mean by a “Yellow Sign”?

The night’s stillness is broken as Dr. Petrie rushes out to care for a dying patient, the subtle machinations of villainy begin their work, and the nefarious Dr. Fu-Manchu again rears his insidious head in London. Arthur Henry Ward (Sax Rohmer) is best known for creating the criminal mastermind Dr. Fu-Manchu. The Wire Jacket contains the first three chapters of the novel The Return of Fu-Manchu, and can be listened to as a stand-alone story.

Something seems off. Lupin sensed it before it happened. When a simple burglary goes terribly wrong, and two of Lupin’s accomplices are sentenced to the guillotine, Lupin’s quest to free them reveals itself to be more twisted and darker than he’d ever imagined. Inspired by the infamous Panama scandals of 1892 and 1893, and expanding on the main concept in Poe’s The Purloined Letter, Leblanc weaves a thrilling tale of twists and turns with Lupin’s characteristic panache.

What must Ruscha do to secure the magic word that kills when it’s uttered? Taken from a Danish folk tale, and spiced up with lively characters and murky atmosphere, this short tale delivers some wonderful chills. Elizabeth Ellet wrote for the magazines, or periodicals in the mid-1800s, and the name of Mrs. Ellet was recognized in literary circles. Today, Ellet is perhaps known best for the scandal she leaked about Edgar Allan Poe’s rumored affair with Frances Sargent Osgood when both were married to other people.

A wife’s indiscretion is answered with cruel estrangement. Yet when the couple meets again six years later in a train car, as two strangers traveling together, the Baron discovers the magnitude of his loss. Guy de Maupassant was a master of the short story, using every literary device and turn of phrase with masterful effect. A Meeting is an elegant tale that explores the consequences of unbridled, and bridled, passion.

The bombastic Professor Challenger is convinced that a sentient being lurks in the mantle of the Earth. Aided by Edward Malone and Peerless Jones, he must drill down through the Earth’s crust to alert the creature of humankind’s existence. After his debut in The Lost World, Arthur Conan Doyle went on to develop the grandiloquent Professor Challenger in four other works. When the World Screamed is the fourth in the series, and a satisfying addition to the canon.

Edward Malone is a young journalist at the "Daily Gazette", who is eager to impress his girlfriend Gladys. To do so, he requests a dangerous and complex task. After a few days, he is assigned to an expedition leaded by the notorious Professor Challenger. The the expedition is headed toward what Challenger’s claim is a new and isolated area of the Amazon jungle. He believes that thousands of years ago dinosaurs, pterodactyls and other exotic creatures were inhabitants of the area.